If you're looking for interesting things to try out on a rainy day, the Extrude and Weave tool can give some strange effects when applied to fonts.

The example below is a font called Vladimir Script, chosen for the crossings that the font has. I converted the font to vectors, then node edited the crossings and the tails of the characters so that they are continuous text like you would hand write it. The Extrude tool with Weave enabled is used in conjunction with a small arc to create the example below. Looks like a woven wire frame construction. The arc was scaled down a little at a time until the model had gaps in it to give this effect. Normal text can be done this way with the Weave option deselected. This would give an outline text with a round shape.

A different vector shape will give even stranger looking results. An inverted V will make prism topped outline text. An M or double arc vector works, but with the corresponding shape.

I don't use vcarve pro much for any design work purely because I am more familiar with another program but you should be able to convert the text to curves & then weld it which is probably a lot quicker than node editing it all or at the least is another way it can be done.

CarveOne wrote:Welding is one of the tools I haven't spent any time with so far. It has been on my mind for a while that I should get familiar with it. You just talked me into it.

CarveOne

They are tools that I use quite a lot for signmaking but not so much for stuff for the router to date. The suite of 2d editing tools in the software I use is a lot better than the vectric ones but then it's a dedicated signmaking program aimed mainly at cad cut & printed vinyl so I would expect it to be.

[Edited by brian to change 'shaping' to '2D editing' to clear up confusion from later emails]

Martin, maybe someone will establish a camp event in the UK that won't be so expensive to attend. I don't know where the idea first sprang up here in the US of A, but it makes a lot of sense. The folks who sponsor these camps are very generous with their time and facilities. I doubt that they make any money off the effort but they do make a lot of friends and contacts that are beneficial for their business.

Here is an example of a Paradise box top panel I made using the non-woven version. I darkened the inside grooves with gel stain and raised the component height to get the look I was after at the time.

I tried the weld tool this morning and it certainly made quick work of tying all of the character tails together. Mere microseconds. It deleted the holes in characters that have them, so I deselected those before welding and that was that. It also did a cleaner job of it than I did with node edit.

Graham, my post obviously wasn't very clear, software I use doesn't have any modelling capability so won't do any kind of weave, Caveone had mentioned welding so when I mentioned shaping tools I meant those for joining, punching out etc. I can't do any modelling myself as Aspire is currently out of my price range, I'm a vcarve pro user at present. Sorry about the misleading post.

Caveone, they did have a one day event in the UK last year which unfortunately I was unable to attend, hopefully that is something they can build on in the future. Even if they do get a UK camp up & running I would still like to attend one in the USA. Much more fun traveling to a different Country